ABSTRACT

Research Question: Social media platforms provide opportunities for athletes to promote their personal brands and attract engagement from consumers. Through this research, we examined the factors that influence social media engagement (likes and comments) with athlete content on Instagram.

Research Methods: We monitored the posting habits of every MLS player with a public Instagram profile over a one-month period. In total, 1727 Instagram posts from 289 male professional athletes were included in the study. Drawing upon self-presentation theory, the Model of Athlete Brand Image, and relationship marketing, each post was dummy coded according to its content type and the overarching marketing orientation reflected by the characteristics of the post.

Results and Findings: Results from ANOVA and hierarchical regression tests indicated the Athletic Performance content type attracted higher rates of consumer engagement than other content types. Posts containing good quality photos, and the athlete’s teammates positively influenced engagement rates; whereas including hashtags negatively influenced engagement.

Implications: Overall, this research extends knowledge surrounding athlete branding via social media and supports that impression management adopting a relationship marketing approach facilitates improved consumer engagement. Through this research we develop the Model of Athlete Branding via Social Media, which athletes and sport professionals can use to guide their social media strategy.

摘要

研究问题：社交媒体平台为运动员提供了推广个人品牌和吸引消费者参与的机会。通过这项研究，我们检查了影响社交媒体参与（喜欢和评论）与 Instagram 上运动员内容的因素。

研究方法：我们在一个月的时间里监控每个拥有公共 Instagram 个人资料的 MLS 球员的发帖习惯。共有 289 名男性职业运动员的 1727 条 Instagram 帖子被纳入研究。借鉴自我呈现理论、运动员品牌形象模型和关系营销，每个帖子根据其内容类型和帖子特征所反映的总体营销方向进行虚拟编码。

结果和发现：方差分析和分层回归测试的结果表明，运动表现内容类型比其他内容类型吸引了更高的消费者参与率。包含高质量照片的帖子和运动员的队友对参与率产生了积极影响；而包含主题标签会对参与度产生负面影响。

启示：总体而言，这项研究通过社交媒体扩展了有关运动员品牌的知识，并支持采用关系营销方法的印象管理有助于提高消费者参与度。通过这项研究，我们通过社交媒体开发了运动员品牌模型，运动员和体育专业人士可以使用该模型来指导他们的社交媒体策略。